Rotary-wing vehicle and system

Abstract

A lift producing multi-rotor apparatus with a single gear, central drive gear unit actuating gear driven rotor-shaft units having pitch-controlled rotor heads where the rotor units are disposed directly opposite from each other, the direction of rotation of opposing rotor units are opposite from each other, and where the rotational-disk defined by each rotor overlaps two adjacent rotational disks.

1 . A lift producing multi-rotor apparatus comprising:
 a central drive gear unit comprising a single main gear,   one or more pairs of rotor units, where each pair of rotor units comprises a first rotor unit and a second rotor unit where each rotor unit comprises
 an arm housing a main drive-shaft having
 an inner end attached to the central drive gear unit in mechanical communication with the central drive gear unit, and 
 an outer end comprising a gear set driven by the main drive shaft to power a rotor shaft, 
 
 a pitch-controlled rotor head attached to the rotor shaft comprising one or more rotor blades whose rotation defines a rotational disk, 
   where the first rotor unit is directly opposite from the second rotor unit relative to the central drive gear unit,   the direction of rotation of the first rotor unit is opposite from the direction of rotation of the second rotor unit, and   where the rotational-disk defined by each rotor head overlaps two adjacent rotational disks.   
     
     
         2 . The multi-rotor apparatus of  claim 1  where each main drive-shaft is driven in the same direction when viewed from the outer end towards the inner end. 
     
     
         3 . The multi-rotor apparatus of  claim 1  where the rotational-disks of two or more rotor units are coplanar. 
     
     
         4 . The apparatus of  claim 1  where the power is derived from a source selected from a set comprising electric motor, piston engine, rotary engine and turbine. 
     
     
         5 . The multi-rotor apparatus of  claim 1  where 3 pairs of rotor units are included to form a hexacopter. 
     
     
         6 . The multi-rotor apparatus of  claim 1  further comprising a frame connecting two or more of the multi-rotor apparatus to form a lift producing apparatus. 
     
     
         7 . The multi-rotor apparatus of  claim 1  where a rotor unit receives mechanical power from the central drive gear unit. 
     
     
         8 . The multi-rotor apparatus of  claim 1  where a clutch is incorporated configured to allow autorotation. 
     
     
         9 . The multi-rotor apparatus of  claim 1  where a rotor unit incorporates a mechanical drive to transmit mechanical power to the central drive gear unit. 
     
     
         10 . The mechanical drive of  claim 9  where a takeoff gear is incorporated into drive-shaft. 
     
     
         11 . The multi-rotor apparatus of  claim 1  where the arm incorporates a shaft pass-through structure. 
     
     
         12 . The multi-rotor apparatus of  claim 1  where the single main gear has a single tooth surface. 
     
     
         13 . The multi-rotor apparatus of  claim 1  where the single main gear has a double tooth surface. 
     
     
         14 . The multi-rotor apparatus of  claim 1  where the single main gear is optimized with a helical cut. 
     
     
         15 . The multi-rotor apparatus of  claim 1  where the one or more rotor blades are of differing size.